Study after study show CTE is a disease of mileage. The more brain rattling an athlete experiences over their career the greater their chances of acquiring the deadly brain disease.
CTE does not care what sport you play. It does not care if you are an amateur or a professional. It does not care if your brain rattling occurs in practice or during a game. All that seems to matter is how much cumulative brain rattling you expose yourself too. After a certain threshold you hit the point of no return.
To this end another study, this time focussing on hockey players, shed more light on this topic. The study found that with each year playing contact hockey the athletes chances of developing CTE increased by 34%.
The study is titled Duration of Ice Hockey Play and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy and can be found here.
Below is the full abstract.
Key Points
Question Is duration of ice hockey play associated with the presence and severity of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) pathology?
Findings In this cross-sectional study of 77 male brain donors who were amateur and professional ice hockey players, 27 of 28 professional players (96.4%) had CTE pathology and there was a dose-response association between years of ice hockey played and the presence and severity of CTE pathology, with the odds of having CTE and cumulative phosphorylated tau burden increasing per each additional year played.
Meaning This study found that risk for CTE may cumulatively increase with each additional year of ice hockey played, as with American football.
Abstract
Importance Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative tauopathy associated with repetitive head impacts (RHIs). Prior research suggests a dose-response association between American football play duration and CTE risk and severity, but this association has not been studied for ice hockey.
Objective To investigate associations of duration of ice hockey play with CTE diagnosis and severity, functional status, and dementia.
Design, Setting, and Participants This cross-sectional study was conducted among male brain donors in the Understanding Neurological Injury and Traumatic Encephalopathy and Framingham Heart Study Brain Banks whose primary RHI exposure was from ice hockey. Donors died, brains were donated, and data were collected between July 1997 and January 2023. Data analysis was conducted from January 2023 to May 2024.
Exposures Ice hockey years played as an RHI proxy.
Main Outcomes and Measures CTE neuropathological diagnosis, cumulative phosphorylated tau (ptau) burden across 11 brain regions commonly affected in CTE, informant-reported Functional Activities Questionnaire (FAQ) score at death, and consensus dementia diagnosis were assessed.
Results Among 77 male donors (median [IQR] age, 51 [33-73] years), 42 individuals (54.5%) had CTE, including 27 of 28 professional players (96.4%). CTE was found in 5 of 26 donors (19.2%) who played fewer than 13 years, 14 of 27 donors (51.9%) who played 13 to 23 years, and 23 of 24 donors (95.8%) who played more than 23 years of hockey. Increased years played was associated with increased odds for CTE (odds ratio [OR] per 1-year increase, 1.34; 95% CI, 1.15-1.55; P < .001) and with increased ptau burden (SD increase per 1-year increase = 0.037; 95% CI, 0.017-0.057; P < .001) after adjusting for age at death, other contact sports played, age of first hockey exposure, concussion count, and hockey position. Simulation demonstrated that years played remained associated with CTE when years played and CTE were both associated with brain bank selection across widely ranging scenarios (median [full range] OR across all simulations, 1.34 [1.29-1.40]). Increased ptau burden was associated with FAQ score (βstandardized = 0.045; 95% CI, 0.021-0.070; P < .001) and dementia (OR per SD increase, 1.12; 95% CI, 1.01-1.26; P = .04) after adjusting for age at death, other contact sports played, hockey years played, enforcer status, age of first hockey exposure, concussion count, and hockey position.
Conclusions and Relevance In this study of male former ice hockey players, a dose-response association was observed between hockey years played and risk and severity of CTE. Simulation suggested that brain bank selection may not bias the magnitude of outcomes in the association.
Combat Sports Law 